


Five Roads Not Taken

by Isis



Category: due South
Genre: 5 Things, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-18
Updated: 2007-08-18
Packaged: 2017-11-05 23:14:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis/pseuds/Isis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Roads Not Taken

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the ds_flashfiction Five Challenge.

**1\. Mark**

Of course, they were just kids, then. Playing hockey behind the Smithbauers' barn, laughing and pushing each other into the snow. In retrospect he wonders whether their constant competition had been the equivalent of the dance of wolves or great bull elk, trying to impress.

Maybe if he'd paid more attention back then, things wouldn't have ended up like this. Or maybe they would have; maybe Mark would still have been tempted by money, maybe he would still have made unwise decisions.

Maybe when Mark spent the night in his apartment, Fraser wouldn't have slept on the floor.

But he did.

 

**2\. Victoria**

He still replays it in his mind, sometimes. Her hand, reaching out. The decision to run. The train, pulling away. The gunshot.

If Ray hadn't taken that shot, where would they be now? Hidden in the big-city maze of New York? Flown to Paris under false names and passports? Maybe he'd have grown a beard, and she would have cut her hair, the better to fool the authorities, blend in, slip away.

It's a harmless escapist fantasy, to imagine himself with her in some exotic city, fugitives, criminals, desperately in love. Kabul, Arequipa, Rome. The more unlikely the better, because he knows in his heart what the most likely outcome would have been.

 

**3\. Ray**

It's human nature, he supposes, that we so easily imagine that our own actions - or inactions - are more important than they really are. That stepping on a crack breaks our mother's back. That choosing to attend or not attend a hockey game has an effect on the final score. The solipsistic fallacy. It's ridiculous. It's natural.

Still, Fraser can't help but think that it's his fault, somehow, that Ray was sent on an undercover mission to Las Vegas. It's ridiculous, but it's natural. If he had only spoken of his feelings. If he'd stayed in Chicago that summer. If he hadn't stepped on that crack.

 

**4\. Meg**

Not that he would do anything about it. She's his superior officer; it would be unseemly.

But every so often the scent of gardenias wafts by him as she walks down the corridor, and his mind wanders, just a little.

 

**5\. Ray**

His entire history with Ray Kowalski is littered with roads not taken, with words left unsaid. Maybe he was too cautious, but when they came to a fork, so to speak, he waited for Ray to choose the path.

And so when Ray asked if Fraser found him attractive, he replied that he wasn't really qualified to judge. Ray said he loved him - "not literally, I mean symbolically," and Fraser said that he understood. Ray said, "So, nothing's changed?" and Fraser did not say that he wanted very much to press his lips against Ray's again, only this time not underwater.

But here they are at Franklin Bay, and it occurs to him that maybe Ray has been waiting for _him_ to choose the path.

"So if we live through this," says Ray, "if we get back to Chicago, I guess you'll partner up with Vecchio."

Fraser takes a deep breath, and makes his choice.


End file.
